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Getting Married Abroad Legal and Formal Requirements The
civil requirements for marriage abroad are not those of The legal validity
of your marriage is governed by the laws of the country where
you marry. While in Priest to officiate at
your wedding abroad ? Your marriage may be conducted by a foreign
priest attached to the wedding-church (in Spain, France, Italy or wherever) or by a priest from Ireland whom you invite to come out as your celebrant, with the consent of the local parish-priest. If an
Irish celebrant is travelling out to officiate at your
wedding, as a guideline we suggest an honorarium of about Euro 500.00 for him,
which will more than cover all his travel and accommodation costs.
This is more gracious than asking him to submit a list of expenses
later. Some couples might
opt for a quiet civil ceremony here at home, with a more
festive church wedding later. For a church wedding in a foreign country,
your marriage-documents must be sent from your home diocese
to the bishop of the foreign diocese. Most foreign dioceses
will require the documents to be sent at least two months before
the wedding date. As soon as you have settled upon a church and
date, find out what are the documentary requirements of the
foreign parish priest, and set about fulfilling them! Bilingual wedding booklet ? If the mother-tongues
of bride and groom are different, a bilingual wedding booklet
may be desirable, and can be prepared from texts on elsewhere on this site If you should need a bilingual priest to help
celebrate your wedding, you can enquire from 087-820-4156, or
on the day of your course; we may be able to help you to find
one. Things to ask your wedding planner The
service may not come cheap, but many couples planning their
wedding abroad find it worthwhile to engage a wedding planner
to deal with many of the details, to liaise with the local priest
(if he does not speak English), hotel, florist, photographer,
musicians etc. These services can be found on the internet,
by a simple search that conjoins the phrase "wedding-planner"
with the name of the area: Tuscany, Catalonia, Prague,
Dubrovnik, Krakow, etc. entrust
some aspects of the ceremony to your wedding planners
- as well as arranging for the reception. For instance: 1.
Getting to the church by
car: the wedding planner should ensure that (for the
bride's arrival at least) the church is reachable by car; and
tell the driver the exact route to be taken (this can avoid the
need for her to walk the final ten minutes, possibly in the rain,
because of one-way or No-Entry regulations!) 3.
Contacting the celebrant:
If the celebrant is coming from abroad, the wedding planner should
phone him in advance, to discuss any details he may want arranged
with the local church. 4.
Wedding booklets:
The wedding planner should be entrusted with ensuring that your
wedding booklets are brought to the church in good time for the
ceremony, to be given to your guests as they arrive. 5. Being
there for the church ceremony
: The wedding planner should be present in the church at least
ten minutes before the ceremony, to liaise between the visiting
priest and the sacristan and organist, about any last-minute details
to be agreed. He/she should also be there at the end, to ensure
that the guests know the way to the reception, if this is other
than the hotel where they have been staying. |